With the millions of cars on the roads today, maintenance of their engines has become big business. The need to maintain proper engine lubrication has caused the popularity of fast oil change and lubrication shops to grow rapidly. Nevertheless, with their fixed locations, the automobile owner still must take from 15 to 30 minutes from his schedule to have an oil change done while he waits.
While these shops are convenient for a majority of the motoring public, there is one major segment of automobile owners for which this is inconvenient and even costly--rental car agencies. With their large number of vehicles, and the rapid accumulation of mileage on the vehicles, these automobiles are in frequent need of oil change and lubrication. The inconvenience to the rental car agency is in the need to have a driver deliver each automobile to a fast oil change shop, wait on the oil change, and then return the vehicle to the rental car agency lot. With a large rental car agency, this procedure could easily require one person full time simply ferrying vehicles back and forth to the oil change shop. Several factors affect the cost to the rental car agency of having a vehicle's oil changed. In fact, the cost of changing the oil goes far beyond the actual amount paid to the oil change shop. Among the most significant cost factors are: (a) the additional mileage (wear and tear) on the car, (b) the gasoline to drive it to and from the oil change shop, (c) the vehicle's downtime while it is at the oil change shop, (d) the increased accident risk of having the vehicle on the highways while en route, and (e) the non-productivity of the driver while he or she waits for the oil to be changed. When all of these hidden costs are considered, the total oil change cost could easily double the amount paid to the oil change shop. Alternatively, the rental car agency could invest in its own oil change facility, however that is a capital investment which most agencies are often reluctant to make.
While mobile oil change and lubrication have been done for heavy construction equipment for many years, the essential reasons and approach were different from the invention to be described. The reasons for on-site oil changes of heavy construction equipment are: (1) impracticality of transporting (driving or trailering) the equipment for such minor maintenance, (2) the construction equipment is unavailable for use while being transported and serviced, and (3) few maintenance shops can accommodate the special needs of heavy construction equipment. Because of the size of the equipment being serviced, these heavy equipment service trucks have usually been custom built directly on two ton, or larger, truck frames for the specific needs of the heavy equipment fleet. The large size of the service truck allows sufficient oil and other lubricant volumes to accommodate the large demands of the heavy equipment.
The introduction of mobile oil change operations to service automotive fleets has met with phenomenal acceptance. In particular, some of the largest rental car agencies have embraced the concept of an on-site mobile oil change operation which eliminates their need to constantly shuttle their vehicles back and forth to a fast oil change franchise. An expeditious method of fabricating a mobile lubricant recovery and delivery system was urgently needed. Therefore a stand-alone, mobile lubricant recovery and delivery system which could be assembled on a pallet was disclosed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/036,748, filed Mar. 9, 1998, entitled "Integrated Lubricant Delivery and Retrieval Pallet and Method of Manufacture Thereof," commonly assigned with the present application. While perfectly adequate for the intended use, the system described requires the service technician to (a) jack the serviced vehicle with a conventional service or floor jack, (b) access the lubricant drain plug from a portable automotive creeper, (c) catch the used lubricant in a portable oil drain pan, and (d) pour the used lubricant into a used lubricant collection tank within the servicing vehicle. Two areas which could be improved with this system involve the jack and the portable oil drain pan.
Even the smallest service jack capable of lifting a nominal 21/2 tons weighs a minimum of about 30 pounds. Therefore, some provision must be made to secure the jack within the servicing vehicle to prevent the jack from moving when the vehicle is in motion, lest some equipment be damaged. Thus in the prior art, a specific storage location over the rear wheel well was designated and equipped to secure the service jack. With the service jack secured within the cargo compartment of the service vehicle, it must be removed from the vehicle to the normal use location on the parking lot surface. The traditional approach is for the jack to be lifted into and out of the cargo compartment by the service technician. Although 30 pounds is well within the normal lifting capacity of an adult service attendant, the repetitive nature of loading and unloading the jack into the service vehicle introduces a significant hazard for improper lifting techniques which can cause injury to the back of the attendant or the possibility of dropping the jack on the service technician's foot. The deeper the storage location for the jack is within the cargo compartment of the service vehicle, the higher is the risk of back injury to the attendant. The current location available for the service jack storage, i.e., over the rear wheel well, increases the hazard of improper alignment of the spine and possible injury. The attendant must lean substantially over the rear bumper and into the cargo compartment of the service vehicle. Accordingly, a storage location within the vehicle bumper was disclosed in co-pending application Ser. No. 152,535, filed Sep. 14, 1998, entitled "Vehicle Bumper with Integral Jack and Method of Manufacture Thereof," now U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,953, commonly assigned with the present application. However, the system described still required the attendant to lift the service jack between the bumper storage location and the parking lot surface.
Also in the prior art, the oil drain pan must be pulled from under the serviced vehicle. The pan contents must then be poured into the used lubricant collection tank located within the servicing vehicle. These actions introduce the possibility of spillage or splashing, whether on the parking lot surface or inside the servicing vehicle. Since the used lubricant is very dirty, any spillage could be extremely messy and difficult to clean up. Because the used lubricant collection tank is a significant distance inside the servicing vehicle, the probability of spillage is increased.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a more efficient form of outfitting a service vehicle that eliminates the need for a service jack and portable oil drain pan.